The Aftermath

This is a continuation of the story you'll find on Lucas and Stewart's page.

Co-written by: Lou and LJ


Chandi settled into his seat and watched as Eric buckled him in. He was feeling a fairly nice glow and hoped it would last at least for the rest of the evening.

When the car started moving, he put his head down on Eric’s shoulder and slurred, “I’m glad you came to take me home, sweetheart. I love going home with you. In fact, I love going anywhere with you. You just have to lead and I’ll follow. Yes siree, I’m right behind you. And for the rest of my life, too.” Chandi was babbling but didn’t care. Nothing was going to bother him while he was in this beer-induced state of mellowness.

Eric looked across at his partner and could not help but smile. “You’re a cheap date, darlin’.” Slowing to take the corner, he noted Chandi’s relaxed state and felt the warmth of his knee as it fell lax against his own. He only wished it was relaxation borne of being care-free, not several beers down. Flicking on the radio, Eric let the music wash over them both, well aware it was one of Chandi’s favourites. “Home soon, love.”

“Hmmm,” Chandi smiled and tried to sing along with the lively tune, but was unable to, so he just hummed and snuggled against his lover as close as the seatbelt would allow.

He was vaguely conscious of them turning into their driveway and Eric shutting off the motor. However, he did find amusement in falling up the couple of steps that lead to their back door. With Eric’s help, he finally made it into the kitchen. It was exactly as it had been left earlier with Chandi’s uneaten supper looking cold and unappealing on the table.

Chandi staggered the short distance to a chair and dropped down onto it, almost falling again. “Whacha wanna do now, Eric?” He grinned crookedly up at his partner, not quite able to pick up on the exasperation in the older man’s low groan.

One look at the wilted salad and curled edges of the drying pasta told Eric it was beyond salvaging. Well, one thing was for sure, Chandi definitely looked less stressed than he had for a while; legs splayed and arms hanging by his sides as he seemed intent on melting into the kitchen chair. Eric watched him for a long moment. Chandi was either pretty far gone, or keen for Eric to think he was. Either way, they were not doing this tonight.

Turning to the sink, Eric grabbed a glass from the drain board and reached across to the fridge, snagging the carton of juice. Fluids, a bit of sugar and some painkillers to head off the inevitable, and the morning should be better for them both, he thought. The top shelf of the pantry gave up a bottle of Tylenol. Holding two of them out, Eric waited for Chandi to hold up his hand before dropping them neatly into his palm. Swapping the cold supper for the glass, Eric set the plate beside the sink and leant his backside against the cool metal edge, crossing his arms.

Catching his partner’s eye, Chandi made an effort to sit up and have a small sip of his drink and toss back the pills.

Eric shook his head. ‘Oh, don’t start nursing your drink now, my boy.’

Reading the look, Chandi held his gaze and smiled around the glass as he finished and then clunked it with some satisfaction on the table.

Eric straightened and clapped his hands together. “Right; it’s a shower and bed for you. Up!”

Chandi slowly pushed himself to his feet and headed out of the room and down the short hallway. He was grateful for his partner’s help in negotiating the stairs. In the master bedroom, he went to sit on the end of their bed, but misjudged the exact location of where he wanted to be and ended up on the floor.

Fifteen minutes later, after showering and putting on clean t-shirt and boxers, again with some assistance from Eric, Chandi crawled in between the sheets and went out like a light. He never even stirred when his lover stretched out beside him.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chandi was in extreme discomfort when he woke up. It wasn’t from the headache he probably deserved after last night’s over-indulgence, but from an overfull bladder. He squirmed out from under Eric’s arm and rushed into the en suite.

Feeling much better, he decided to leave his partner sleeping and go downstair to make himself a coffee and watch the sunrise from the back veranda.

He grimaced when the first thing he noticed on arriving in the kitchen was the plate of dried out food sitting by the sink. Yesterday’s events came flooding back as he grabbed up the offending item and viciously scrapped the unappetizing mess into the compost bin, briefly wondering if it was even fit to be used in a garden.

He sighed his frustration as he filled the coffee pot. He had disobeyed a direct order from Eric to eat his supper before going out. Then there was the matter of drinking to the point of acting silly in public to answer for. Not the acting silly part, but the drinking too much after he and Eric had discussed him imbibing a little too often lately.

He was just about to pour himself a mug of fresh brew when he sensed he was no longer alone in the room. He turned to find Eric leaning against the door frame, quietly watching him.

“Morning, Sunshine.” Eric shouldered into one of the old sweaters he saved for weekend mornings such as this. Padding his way across the cool kitchen tiles, he cupped a hand around the back of Chandi’s neck, pulling him in for a quick kiss.

Gently extracting the still empty mug from Chandi’s grip, he set it on the counter and took hold of his partner’s hand. Tugging slightly, he nodded toward the other room. “Let’s do this.”

Chandi considered digging in his heels and playing dumb, but resisted the urge to do so. He pressed his lips together and resigned himself to following his Top’s lead. He hated being called upon for his misconduct, hated being anything short of perfect for his partner, hated being punished; but mostly he hated feeling guilty. Fortunately, their chosen life-style provided them with a means of dealing with all of that.

Without releasing Chandi's hand, Eric gathered up yesterday’s papers from the couch and tossed them onto the coffee table, his lips twitching at his partner’s soft hiss of disgruntlement. Sitting down, he pulled his Brat between his knees and just looked for a long moment. God he loved him.

Chandi took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Eric, for disobeying you. The only excuse I have to offer is that yesterday was a real bummer and I was really wound up after the hearing. I just had to run it out of my system. And I had pretty much succeeded in getting a grip on my emotions when I met up with Stewart at the lounge. We began airing our woes and one drink lead to another.” Chandi groaned softly while running his hand over his head and rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah, and I know that my recent over-indulging is another area in which I failed to keep my part of the agreement we reached just two nights ago.” His eyes filled as he gazed into his lover’s face and sincerely offered his apology.

Not unmoved by the man’s confession and apology, Eric shook his head slightly and held up his hand to halt his words. “If you think…” he stopped and rethought his approach, ordering his words in his mind before speaking.

“Thank you. I am pleased you appreciate both our agreement and the ways in which you breached that agreement last night. You know that I am not and never have been averse to you drinking per se, but alcohol does heighten the side effects of your meds, just as it would for anyone, and as it would for me. So yes, you ought to have stuck to your limit and I shall be reminding you of that in just a minute.”

Noting Chandi’s apprehensive look, Eric decided to get to the heart of the matter.

“As for the running, well I might have run with you had I been asked, but I am happy you have some means to unwind; you need that, so never stop. But what really bothers me was thinking you had to get drunk in order to talk. You were there for Stewart and that is a good thing. Don’t doubt it, because I don’t.” Eric shifted and took hold of both his partner’s hands, his voice acquiring a sharper edge that made Chandi blink. “However, if you think for a moment that you need booze in order to get a person in distress to open up and talk; then you are seriously underestimating yourself, Chandi Barrett, and that is something I won’t have.”

“But you got it all wrong, Eric. Stewart and I were there for each other. Neither of us thought we had to drink in order to spill our guts. We sure didn’t plan to down so many beers. Guess that was kind of an accident,” Chandi explained defensively. “Although the booze probably helped in loosening our tongues, we’ve been friends for a long time and both of us can usually pick up on when the other is troubled.”

“Great,” said Eric with a tone of finality. “Then you can think how much better Stewart would be able to remember your support if half-way sober.”

With that Eric tugged the stunned man forward and across his lap. Hitching his thumbs in the elastic of Chandi’s sweatpants and boxers, he tugged them down as one. A quick glance to the side showed the man braced on his forearms over the leather cushion, head hanging in embarrassment, his strong torso tucked under Eric’s arm. Silently counting to three, Eric brought his hand down hard on the tightly clenched backside, surprised as always by the sound created between the two of them when in this position.

Shifting his right knee to raise Chandi’s backside to a better angle, Eric continued to slap his hand down in a steady rhythm from one flinching cheek to the other.

“I can do this as often as you need or want, love, but if you sell yourself short; I promise it will only get worse. And,” Eric landed a particularly harsh slap to Chandi’s thigh that elicited a moan. “If you willfully break our agreement you will always end up here.”

Tightening his grip on Chandi’s hip, Eric willed himself to continue in spite of the now increasingly miserable sounds his labours were producing. His cadence was broken momentarily as Chandi threw his right hand back. Chiding softly, Eric waited for him to remove it and took a second to press his own stinging palm against his thigh.

“Easy,” he murmured. “You’re doing well.” Applying a half dozen more heavy swats to the underside of Chandi’s now hot backside, Eric brought it to an end. Releasing the distraught man, Eric helped him turn carefully on his lap and simply held him as he wrapped himself around his Top’s body and sobbed.

Chandi may have been on the receiving end of harder spankings, but at this moment in time they seemed to pale in comparison to this one. He gratefully accepted the comfort offered by his chastiser, trying to get himself under control while promising never to repeat last night’s transgressions.

The ringing of the phone sounded somewhere off in the distance; although in truth it was just across the room on Eric’s desk. Both men chose to ignore its’ summons and let the answering machine take care of it.

It was some time later, long after the softly murmuring voices went silent that Chandi unenthusiastically pushed himself up to his feet and out of the safe cocoon of Eric’s embrace. Picking up the clothing he had kicked off earlier, Chandi slipped the underwear and pants on. He hissed as the material passed over his abused flesh. Knowing he had earned every swat didn’t do much to ease his discomfort. He figured he be spending the greater part of the day standing up.

Seeing the red light blinking on the answering machine, reminded him of the missed call. He picked up the receiver and after pushing the necessary buttons, listened patiently to the message. A smile slowly spread across his handsome face and he was all but beaming when he hung up the phone and turned to Eric.

“You’ll never guess, but that was a member of the review board calling to let me know of their decision. It’s good; really, really good. In fact, it couldn’t be better.” Chandi was practically prancing with excitement. “They’ve decided it was a good shoot. I won’t have to fire Officer Lambert and effective immediately, his suspension is over,” he announced with a silly grin turning up the corners of his mouth. It was over and he couldn’t have hoped for a better ending……well, maybe minus the sore butt would have been nice.

The End